


Grounding

by chell-surname-redacted (failsafe)



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-22 09:06:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/608139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/pseuds/chell-surname-redacted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy has some unexpected time to think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grounding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sheeana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheeana/gifts).



> I am new to YA fandom, and this fic ostensibly takes place in a fan-constructed canon where Wanda is still an Avenger in good standing. My best friend, whom this is for, will understand (I hope). 
> 
> Sheeana: I was trying to do something with your first suggested prompt on your letter and this is what I came up with. I hope you like it! Ilu.

Tommy was glad it had been him, privately.

“Fuck off,” he said aloud when he saw the silver metal around Billy's head, his red cape's front falling forward a little. Tommy managed to get up onto his elbows, but he knew better than to try to move his legs. They were still trapped, weight still bearing down. How heavy _was_ the piece of concrete wall that he'd only managed to almost dodge? Any of the rest of them would be dead. He grit his teeth against the pain and growled at it a little.

Billy seemed undeterred. He still touched down on Tommy's thigh, somewhere an inch or so above his trapped knee. It just made Tommy all the more aware of the pain shooting down through his nerves—a kind he wasn't at all accustomed to and that made him want to kick. He couldn't kick and that in itself was nauseating.

“Hands off,” he hissed breathlessly, pushing up on his own hands to see if he could get some leverage to get himself free. “Not your boyfriend, bro,” he said, talking faster but still articulately enough. He would figure this out, he didn't need to go getting scared. Billy met his eyes and he saw a little flicker of recognition before he started looking around each of his shoulders.

“Teddy will catch up in a minute—” Billy said, distracted.

“Hulkling,” Tommy corrected, if only because he could hear the familiarity creeping into his voice—the kind that would lead to voices breaking and then to crying and he didn't want to deal with that, too.

“--We could use his help,” Billy finished, hardly pausing. He looked up at the concrete that Tommy had no real choice but to stare up at. It had to be over a ton. A ton would be easy.

“Where is he?” came another voice—not Teddy's—and Tommy drew a deep breath and on the exhale managed a smirk, turning his head to look up as he heard the soles of Kate's boots approaching behind Billy.

“Right here.”

Tommy watched his brother stop kneeling and sit at his side, sliding against the ground, little gravel-sized bits of concrete crunching beneath him, until light from a street lamp made him squint. It irritated him enough for him to lift one arm up from the ground to shield his eyes. Kate's jogging slowed as Billy settled into one spot and she stepped closer until the beam from the streetlamp lit her back, blocking it for the most part. His legs were still trapped, screaming at him, though, up into his spine, so he didn't waste a lot of time getting too grateful and just shoved his elbow back down to steady himself.

“You think you could help Wiccan push, sweetheart?” he asked dryly, nodding up to the concrete. He realized it was low, but he didn't mean anything by it. He just didn't like the way everything in her face fell slack and got a little pale when she saw him trapped here by his legs. The little flare of one nostril and disgruntled turn of her lips as she glanced between him and his concrete captor made him feel just a little better. He let his arms slide forward and tried not to let his head smack too hard against the pavement when he leaned the rest of the way back and shut his eyes.

“Tommy!” Billy exclaimed, reaching for him again and Tommy wondered what good the anxious pawing was going to do. They saved people, but when it came to when one of them was hurt, the rest of the team got stupid.

“Not going to lie to you. It hurts,” he admitted, glancing between Billy and Kate when he cracked his eyes open again.

Teddy caught up at that point, leaping down from someplace unseen, making everything rattle in his big green form.

“About time you got here,” Billy said, but he didn't sound irritated. He just got up from Tommy's side to usher his boyfriend closer, indicating the concrete. “Think you're the best one to do something about that.”

Teddy nodded and rotated his wrists—probably changing their form a little, too—to get a mental feel for what he was about to do before he touched it. Then he approached one of the several large, fractured pieces of what had once been a wall. He looked worried and Tommy decided he didn't like it but would take what he could get.

“Hanging in there?” Teddy asked and Tommy realized he was talking to him.

“Yeah, I was thinking about taking a nap.”

“Going to sleep right now probably isn't a good idea,” Billy advised, so anxious he seemed to have taken Tommy seriously. Tommy scoffed.

“Relax, I don't have a concussion. The blood is being cut off from my legs, not my head.”

“You sure? You're not making much sense,” Billy said, teasing in some way Tommy imagined was supposed to be reassuring because of the soft smile on his face.

“Yeah,” Tommy dismissed it quickly, “and I'm pretty sure medical knowledge doesn't work through osmosis. Just because your mom's a doctor doesn't mean you are.”

“Alright, ready,” Teddy informed them, getting near Tommy's side and reaching down beneath the gap that was narrowing gradually, crushing his legs. If they'd been ordinary human legs, it was pretty clear from looking that they'd have been useless by now. Good thing he wasn't just human, then.

Tommy watched as Teddy lifted with his knees. Even with his variety of super-strength, he seemed to be having some kind of trouble. So much trouble, in fact, that Tommy might have expressed some kind of concern about that had it not seemed like the sky started to fall. It started with something metal clanking down in response to Teddy's getting his legs free. For a fraction of a second, Tommy didn't even notice because tingling impulses started rushing down his legs as some of the pressure came off, but he could notice a lot of things in a full second if he let himself. He glanced around to all of them, trying to pull his knees up to clear his legs because that was still important, but more concrete was falling in big chunks and metal beams were doing a kind of stilted but inevitable falling out of place.

“Billy!” Tommy realized he was calling out. His brother was right there, beneath a falling bit of concrete that looked fairly unimpressive compared to the one that was crushing his legs, but it still could have knocked him out. Billy was already starting to glow blue at the hands, though, and it extended into a bubble—first around him, and the rock pinged off with a little sound—and then the magic was moving all around them but Billy was shaking with effort and probably some fear.

“ _IwanthelpIwanthelpIwanthelpIwanthelpIwanthelp...”_ Billy was crying out over the din, and Tommy thought he should have been more specific but he didn't really have any suggestions.

Normally, the Avengers showing up was a thorn in their collective side—other times, they were the cavalry, but Tommy didn't think he could count as many of those. This time, though, it wasn't a bunch of them coming in to waggle their adult fingers at them. Instead, it was just two or three. The Scarlet Witch. And they were rushing into a rain of what had once been something like a warehouse. Tommy even had the inclination to warn them, but there wasn't time.

“M—“ he got out, stopping short when he was both mortified by his own mouth and the bright red energy that flowed without so much visible effort from the Scarlet Witch's hands, mingling with Billy's magic until the rich purple seemed to dust away the debris, to pile it safely in a corner as if it had been just a nuisance. He wondered if, ordinarily, Billy could have managed that—but then, when one of them was in danger, the Young Avengers were stupid about each other. Tommy still knew that.

He realized his legs were free but when he tried moving them, the first little bend of his knees hurt so much that he grunted and tugged himself with his arms instead.

“Baby, are you hurt?” he heard the Scarlet Witch ask, and she was talking to him. The others were attending to his brother and his friends, checking on them in a more professional capacity. She was looking right at him and calling him her baby. His head hurt, he decided, but he smiled.

“... Yeah, Mom, I'm fine,” he said. It tasted funny in his mouth—still pretty new. Then fingers were running through his sweat-slicked light hair and he knew _that_ was new. He almost shook it off, but he blinked his vision clear and watched his kind-of mother's face, and there was nothing _kind-of_ about it. She was his mom. That was weird.

Billy was unscathed—apparently his warning, Tommy liked to think, had made him get his head out of his ass fast enough to protect himself.

“Hey, Mom,” Billy was saying as he came over to them, kneeling back down around Tommy's hip and the slight knock of Billy's knee to his skin sent a wave of pain through his aching legs.

“Hey, what did I tell you? Hands off,” Tommy insisted. It wasn't his hands this time, but whatever.

“I'm proud of you,” his mom said to Billy and Tommy looked down at the ground. This was his fault. Somehow or another, it was, and he braced himself for a scolding. Instead, though, he felt lips on his forehead and another stroke through his hair after the brief intermission when he'd scolded Billy for touching him.

“I'm so glad you're okay. Do you need us to take you to a hospital? Back to the Tower? You need to let someone look at them.”

“I'll be fine—“

“No. You're getting them looked at. You just get to pick where.”

Tommy sighed and offered his mom a tired smile and a half shrug. He looked around and didn't answer her yet. He looked at Billy and gave him a brief little appreciative nod, thanks for showing up and trying to help. Teddy was hanging just behind his brother, then—obviously okay. That just left—

“Hey, you okay, princess?” Tommy asked, looking over at Kate. There was a little cut on her cheek at the highest point of her cheekbone, but she seemed just fine knelt down, catching her breath steadily, calmly. “Sorry for the crack about your strength earlier. You're just no Hulkling.”

Kate changed the way she was sitting and he watched as her faint little smile twitched and fought against itself. Once she was settled, sitting on the ground, she tapped at the back of his ankle with her foot.

“It's okay. You're only human,” she teased right back without missing a step.

He let himself lie down on the ground again and found that it meant his head was resting against his mom's lap. He looked up at her, back over at Kate and up one more time. He realized he was too tired to even be embarrassed, being seen like this.

“... Not quite,” he corrected but without making it into a source of more bickering. There'd be time for that later. He shut his eyes and felt his mother's breathing somewhere near his ear that was closest to her. Her fingers kept on combing his hair, but it wasn't anything to complain about. She was his mom. She was one of the most powerful mutants in the world, no matter how it measured on a scale, and she was his mom. Billy was just like her, and Billy was his brother. Everyone could see he belonged to her, but he wasn't the one with his head in her lap right now. She was the reason he was here right now. Frank and Mary Shepherd weren't mutants. His _mom_ was. “Goodnight,” he said dryly, though he knew he'd be getting up to let someone give him some painkillers or something for a few hours while his legs healed. For now, though, just for a minute, he was quiet and still.


End file.
